20 October 2006

Before my trial started the Defence expert Dr Eamonn Francis Maher prepared a detailed report about the exhibits in my case. Although the prosecution experts, particularly those from the Ministry of Defence, made claims that these exhibits were of such sensitivity that they were a threat to national security, Dr Maher had the opposite opinion, that these exhibits were little different to the mass of material already available in the public domain. The brief conclusions to Dr Maher’s report can be read below, but if you would like to see the complete report, this is published on the JAR2 website here or Cryptome here.ConclusionsThe exhibited material contains a large body of scientific information and manufacturing know-how. Virtually all of this information is in the public domain and cannot be said to endanger the national security, in that an enemy is or may well be already privy to this information and certainly has unrestricted access to it.

Of the remaining information, some is clearly of commercial significance only. The residue, some of which according to certain Prosecution witnesses is allegedly of potential use to an enemy, is exposed, often quite explicitly, in the HRC Research Reports for the period 1985 to 1992. These are widely circulated and, whilst being Commercial in Confidence, are not given any military classifications such as “restricted”.

Indeed, the combination of these Reports and the public domain information is of far more significance than the exhibited material in combination with the public domain information.

I must therefore conclude that if the exhibited material is regarded as being a matter of national security, then so too are the majority of unrestricted Research Reports issued by the U.K. Electronics Defence Research Establishments both privately and publicly administered.